L'etat Belge Assigné Devant La Justice Européenne ?

[Ronnie Hayek]

La Belgique pourrait être traînée devant la justice européenne en raison de l'affaire Swift : http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/20…afx3054577.html

EU may take Belgium to court if SWIFT transfers violated EU directives

09.29.2006, 08:34 AM

BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Commission said it may take the Belgian government to court if Belgium has failed to adopt EU directives into national law and then applied them in the case of SWIFT bank transfers between the EU and the US.

US Treasury officials obtained access to the extensive international financial database of SWIFT -- the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication -- as part of the fight against terrorism in the weeks following the Sept 11 attacks.

At the time the officials found that personal data had been transferred with SWIFT transactions, possibly in violation of EU data protection laws.

EU Commission spokesman for Justice And Security Affairs Friso Roscam Abbing said: 'We are hopeful that we will receive (an answer regarding compatibility with EU law) from the Belgian authorities in the next couple of weeks.

'We will then determine whether the data protection directive has been properly applied in Belgium, including whether national remedies to ensure its implementation work effectively,' he added.

'If this is not the case… the commission may take Belgium to the European Court of Justice.'

However, Abbing stressed that the commission could not take direct action against SWIFT, or any other companies but can take action against Belgium for not enforcing its directives.

According to a report by the Belgian Intelligence Services, SWIFT is in a conflicting situation between US law on the one side and European law on the other in terms of data privacy.

The European Commission said in June that it has no jurisdiction over the transfer of financial data to non-EU countries such as the US.

SWIFT is a financial cooperative -- based in Belgium -- that handles international transactions for nearly 8,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries.

frances.robinson@afxnews.com

[Ronnie Hayek]

Quelques réflexions à ce propos : http://chacun-pour-soi.blogspot.com/2006/0…-ses-juges.html